Fuller's American Idol tops the pop talent shows with 35 million viewers

Simon Fuller owns the Pop Idol franchise

By Hugh Davies

12:01AM GMT 06 Feb 2006

Simon Fuller, the music impresario with a £300 million fortune, startled the entertainment world with his amateur talent show, American Idol, opening its fifth year in the US with a record 35.5 million viewers.

The vast audience, the biggest for a light-entertainment show, is likely to disturb executives at ITV, who dumped the original UK format, Pop Idol, in favour of Simon Cowell's The X-Factor.

Fuller, 45, sued Cowell, 46, alleging that he stole the format. Two months ago, they settled a High Court suit, with Fuller reportedly winning 20 per cent of The X Factor, and his erstwhile friend getting a share of American Idol, for which he was already being paid £8 million a year as a judge.

Fuller said: "The network [ITV] in their wisdom, backed the talent [Cowell]. But if they had been smart, and worked out a way of keeping Simon and I together, with Pop Idol, it would have been to their advantage.

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"What they have lost is a global franchise. Instead, they have a poor man's copy, with the rest of the world having the real deal. If all the parties were enlightened, Pop Idol would come back because it is a power-house.

"It has become definitive. Other shows like it have come and gone. All the challengers have fallen in our wake." Bill Carter, the New York Times TV critic, said the "mind-boggling" viewing figures echoed "the heyday" of The Cosby Show, which dominated Thursday evening viewing from 1984 to 1992.

The American Idol audience is one of the biggest for a non-sport programme in history, with sponsors, who pay £395,000 for a 30-second commercial spot, revelling in the fact that, with over 100 channels to choose from in most homes, half of the country's teenage girls who were watching television switched to the show for two hours.

Fuller recalled that when Pop Idol opened in Britain, "we started off with a similar phenomenon" with 10 million people tuning in.

Then, during the second series, "it was 20 per cent higher", but "there was tension". The show ran for only two series.

Fuller, who is working with the Elvis Presley estate to create a Las Vegas stage show about the singer, has said in the past that his business was "creating fame and celebrity, and I'm one of the best in the world".

He made his fortune launching the Spice Girls, managing acts such as Annie Lennox and representing David and Victoria Beckham.

Winners of American Idol have included Kelly Clarkson, whose Breakaway, with five million sales, was the third-biggest selling album in America in 2005.

This week, she is at No 16 in the Billboard singles chart with Because of You.